Expression systems for the production of recombinant polypeptides are well-known in the state of the art and are described by, e.g., Marino, M. H., Biopharm. 2 (1989) 18-33; Goeddel, D. V., et al., Methods Enzymol. 185 (1990) 3-7; Wurm, F., and Bernard, A., Curr. Opin. Biotechnol. 10 (1999) 156-160. For the production of polypeptides and proteins used in pharmaceutical applications preferably mammalian host cells such as CHO cells, BHK cells, NS0 cells, Sp2/0 cells, COS cells, HEK cells, PER.C6® cells and the like are employed. The nucleic acid encoding the polypeptide is preferably introduced into the host cell comprised in a nucleic acid, such as, for example, an expression vector. The essential elements of an expression vector are a prokaryotic plasmid propagation unit, e.g. for Escherichia coli comprising an origin of replication and a selection marker, a eukaryotic selection marker, and one or more expression cassettes for the expression of the structural gene(s) of interest each of them comprising a promoter, a structural gene, and a transcription terminator including a polyadenylation signal. For transient expression in mammalian cells a mammalian origin of replication, such as the SV40 Ori or OriP from EBV, may be included. As a promoter a constitutive or inducible promoter can be selected. For optimized transcription a Kozak sequence may be included in the 5′ untranslated region. For mRNA processing, in particular transcription termination and pre-mRNA splicing, mRNA splicing signals, depending on the organization of the structural gene (exon-intron-organization), may be included as well as a polyadenylation signal.
Expression of a gene is performed either as transient or permanent expression. The polypeptide(s) of interest may be a secreted polypeptide, containing an N-terminal extension (also known as the signal sequence), which is necessary for the transport/secretion of the polypeptide through the cell and into the extracellular medium, or may be a cytosolic polypeptide.
For the large scale production of a polypeptide a high producer cell line has to be established. After the transfection of a host cell line, such as CHO cells, NS0 cells, Sp2/0 cells, BHK cells, COS cells, PER.C6® cells, or HEK cells, in general a plurality of clones with different characteristics are obtained due to, for example, the broad difference of polypeptide expressed from transiently transfected or stably integrated plasmids. For selection purposes the nucleic acid introduced into cells possesses additionally a selectable marker, e.g. a gene conferring resistance against an otherwise fatal substance.
After transfection and by growth in an appropriate selective medium a high producer clone has to be isolated. This is time consuming and consequently expensive. Several methods have been developed to handle this problem.
One of these methods is gene amplification. Therein cells deficient of the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) are transfected with a vector/plasmid which contains a first expression cassette for the expression of the DHFR protein and a second expression cassette for the expression of a heterologous polypeptide of interest. By using a culture medium depleted of glycine, hypoxanthine, and thymidine selective growth conditions are established. For amplification a DHFR inhibitor, methotrexate (MTX), is added (Kaufman, R. J., et al., J Mol. Biol. 159 (1982) 601-621; U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,134).k
Alternatively reporter molecules, such as chloramphenicol-acetyl-transferase, luciferase, green fluorescent protein, or beta-galactosidase, can be fused to the heterologous polypeptide for which a high producer cell line is desired and used as an indirect selectrion marker. The selection takes place in the presence of an added exogenous substrate or cofactor.
A further method for the identification of a high producer clone is a linked transcription of a selectable marker gene and a structural gene encoding a heterologous polypeptide via an internal ribosome entry site (IRES). With this design the expression of the heterologous polypeptide can be correlated with the expression of the selectable marker.
Human immunoglobulins are produced by specialized lymphocytes, the B cells. These cells do not only secrete immunoglobulins (sIg) they also present immunoglobulins on their outer cell membrane as plasma-membrane-bound immunoglobulins (mIg). These mIg's play an important role in the beginning of an immunological response. The presented plasma-membrane-bound immunoglobulins have the function of cellular receptors of their corresponding antigen.
Beginning in 1980 articles dealing with the origin of secreted and plasma-membrane-bound forms of immunoglobulins were published. Early et al. (Early, P., et al., Cell 20 (1980) 313-319) reported that in mice two species of mRNA which encode the heavy chain of immunoglobulins originate from the same primary transcript of a single immunoglobulin μ-gene. The formation of the secreted (sIg) and the plasma-membrane-bound (mIg) forms results from alternative splicing of the heavy chain pre-mRNA. For the sIg isoform all exons coding for the domains of the immunoglobulin and the intron following the exon encoding the C-terminal domain are retained in the mRNA and the polyadenylation signal locates downstream of the stop codon in the intron is used for cleavage and polyadenylation of the primary transcript. For the mIg isoform an alternative 5′ splice donor site after the exon encoding the C-terminal domain of the secreted form (i.e. CH3 or CH4, respectively) links the constant region with the downstream exons M1 and M2 encoding a transmembrane domain. In this case the sequence encoding the terminal amino acids and the stop codon of the secreted form, as well as the adjacent intronic polyadenylation signal for the sIg form are removed by the splicing along with the intron.
For example, the ratio between the mRNA encoding the secreted immunoglobulin heavy chain form and the mRNA encoding the plasma-membrane-bound immunoglobulin heavy chain form is of from 10:1 to 100:1. This ratio is established mainly during pre-mRNA splicing. Translational and post-translational control mechanisms contribute only to a minor part (see e.g. Xiang, S. D., et al., Immun. Cell Biol. 79 (2001) 472-481).
The immunoglobulin bound to the cell's plasma-membrane has the same amino acid sequence and secondary structure as its secreted analogue. The difference is a C-terminal extension of the sIg's heavy chain comprising a transmembrane domain. This transmembrane domain has in general a length of between approx. 40 and approx. 75 amino acid residues. For murine and human immunoglobulins the transmembrane domain can be subdivided into three distinct structural regions: an N-terminal extracellular region of 13-67 amino acid residues, a central conserved transmembrane stretch of 25 amino acid residues, and a C-terminal cytoplasmatic region of 3-28 amino acid residues (Major, J. G., et al., Mol. Immunol. 33 (1996) 179-187).
Expression vectors comprising an amplifiable selectable gene, a fluorescent protein gene, and a gene encoding a desired product in a manner that optimizes transcriptional and translational linkage is reported in WO 01/04306. In WO 01/38557 a method for screening multiply transformed/transfected cells to identify cells expressing at least two peptides or proteins of interest is reported. These two peptides/proteins are linked via an IRES (internal ribosome entry site) to a fluorescent marker gene.
Transgenic animals and cells that comprise an imaging marker transgene are reported in US patent application 2003/0033616. US patent application 2005/0032127 reports a method for the non-invasive selection of single living cells under gentle conditions from mixtures of cells or cell cultures with respect to a specific production performance by fluorescence-microscopic detection methods. A method for identifying and isolating cells which produce secreted proteins is reported in US patent application 2002/0168702.
An expression vector consisting of a gene coding for a protein of interest which is functionally linked to a hamster promoter, a gene which codes for a fluorescent protein, and preferably an amplifiable selection marker gene is reported in US patent application 2004/0148647.